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British Foreign Office admits differences with Russia, welcomes report by House of Commons

"We have significant differences with Russia," Foreign Office spokeswoman said, but at the same time " we engage where it is in our interests to do so, including through high level talks"

LONDON, March 2. /TASS/. The British Foreign Office has acknowledged significant differences with Moscow at the same time welcoming the House of Commons Committee for Foreign Affairs’ report on the country’s relations with Russia.

"We welcome the FAC’s support for the UK’s policy on Russia. We have significant differences with Russia, not least over their actions in Ukraine and Syria. But at the same time we engage where it is in our interests to do so, including through high level talks," a Foreign Office spokeswoman told TASS.

"Our objectives are clear," the spokeswoman added. "We protect UK and our allies’ interests, uphold the rules-based international order and global security, promote our values, including human rights, and build stronger links between the British and Russian people."

At the same time, the Foreign Office stressed that it had "increased resources on Russia across government, both in London and overseas, to deliver this policy."

The report says that members of the House of Commons Committee for Foreign Affairs "are not convinced that the FCO and Government Ministers have identified what Russia wants from the UK, or what, if anything, the UK should seek to accomplish through bilateral engagement with Russia."

The report adds that the Foreign Office "must once again invest in the analytical capacity to understand Russian decision-making in order to develop effective and informed foreign policy."